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At first, it was mostly fun watching disaster strike the eastern seaboard, and seeing our heroes' adventures in places I'm familiar with. But somewhere in the last 100 pages, I finally realized that it had become a chore to read, and I finally put it down.

The final straw for me was the Scroll that Magically Turns into Whichever Book You Want to Read But Only If You Say Your Wish Out Loud. That sounds like something out of a fairy tale rather than a fantasy novel, and isn't what I'm in the mood for right now.

On the plus side, Woosley does know Baltimore, and her descriptions make it clear that she has experience with people with cancer, or at least she's done her research. And hey, who wouldn't want to see Babylonian gods firebomb the Chesapeake?

Content warning for the pervasive antisemitism, but I’d say it’s simply there because the story is set in a very antisemitic time and place.

Like any connection of short stories, this one is a mixed bag. Some, like "Drive", full in sooner off the Expanse universe's history. Others focus on just one of the characters: "Churn" tells of how Amos grew up in and left Baltimore, and "God's of Risk" follows Bobbie in civilian life.

Worth reading? Yes if you've read the rest of the Expanse and want more.

I'm withholding a rating because I read this under less than ideal circumstances: I borrowed the audio book on CD from my local library, and listened to it over several sessions, with long gaps in between. Combined with a few mistakes such that I listened to chapters out of order.

Beyond that, this one seems darker and grittier than the previous two.

As you'd expect from the cover, this is a mashup of H.P. Lovecraft and [a:Dr. Seuss|61105|Dr. Seuss|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1193930952p2/61105.jpg]. Or what would it look like if Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated the story of [b:The Call of Cthulhu|15730101|The Call of Cthulhu|H.P. Lovecraft|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567470807l/15730101.SX50.jpg|25692046]?

The illustrations are spot on, to the point where I think the author may have traced or copied liberally from Seuss's work. And the writing is excellent as well, telling in happy verse the story of nameless horrors that drive people mad.